The Truest Gift From My Heart
A Birthday's gift to Serina, from Dartmaul15
The sweat ran in streams down his mane and sides as Trueshot skidded to almost a halt, and then continued in a light trot to calm down. “That… should do for today.”
He heaved as he shook his mane and tail lightly, coming to a stop outside of ponyville, next to the local lake. His daily training session of four twelve minute intervals in the area around the lake, the Apple orchards and the forest had as usual made his mane practically glued to his neck, and left his yellow coat glistening with sweat.
“Hmm, not as long as I had hoped for. But then again, I did cheat a little on the times,” he said, still snapping a little for his breath.
He had done something he rarely did, cutting the training short, although he had a very good reason to do so. A new pony was in town, new for the townspeople at least; not for him.
The new pony was a unicorn mare, and a close friend of his, Star Twister. They had met back in Canterlot, and had since then gotten to know each other quite well. After some time they had even gone as far as using the term BFF to describe their friendship. They had for a little while hoped that they would be able to live near each other, and now it was happening. She was moving to Ponyville.
Even thinking about all the time they would spend together playing, laughing, just goofing around, and possibly… “Nah, that is not going to happen, not at first at least.”
He chuckled as he thought about all the things they would be doing. Thinking about it all made him feel a little funny, and very happy. It even brought a smile to his muzzle. He was indeed looking forward to meeting her after his daily exercise; which meant about now.
Trueshot turned toward the town, and was about to start trotting when a lock of his mane fell down in front of his eye and stuck to his eyelid, once again bringing his rather sweaty condition back into his mind.
‘She would just snicker at me for being careless about my looks, and the Apple family would not care either. For them being a little sweaty is a sign of hard, honest work. But the rest of the townspeople wouldn’t be that happy,’ he thought as he flapped his wings and rose into the air.
Without any unnecessary bravado he did a somersault in the air, before tilting downward towards the lake and hitting the crystal clear water with a large, wet splash.
“Cold, cold, cold!” he exclaimed loudly as he shot up from the water just as fast as he had entered it, sending torrents of water splashing everywhere.
Once clear of the chilling liquid, he started shaking his mane and tail furiously to get rid of whatever water he could. A few shakes later, and some strong beats with his wings, and he was down on the ground again; mane pointing everywhere, and his fur all fluffed up like someone had washed him with way too much conditioner.
“Hmm, a little water should smooth out my mane, and make it settle nicely. And the fur will lie down after a few minutes.” he mumbled to himself
Trueshot scanned the banks for a suitable spot for his plan. ‘Aha, there we got one. Deep enough to work, and i get to keep my hooves out of the water,’ he thought. He then trotted the few meter over to the spot, dipped his head and mane into the water, and whipped his head backwards again making his mane to settle nicely.
‘Excellent,’ he thought as he saw his own reflection in the clear water. ‘Now to head towards the town square, and towards Star Twister.’
He settled for a light trot, and was on his way.
Trueshot let his hooves carry him all the way to the town square, and quickly started scanning for his friend. ‘Blue and black striped mane combined with a greyish blue coat... where do we have it?’ His gaze wandered freely over yellow ponies, green ponies, blue ponies, black ponies; ponies of all colors. But no ponies with a brownblue and black striped mane.
Having searched through almost all of the town square, Trueshot finally spotted the right color combinations -blue and black mane, and a greyish blue coat. She was sitting at a bench in the far corner of the park, head towards the ground.
“Hey, Star Twister, how’re you doing?” he called out to her, hoping that she would hear him.
As she turned around, he instantly spotted the glistening stream of liquid running from her eyes and down her chin. Her faint, almost undetectable sobbing only served to state the obvious.
“Hey, Star. What’s wrong?” Trueshot picked up pace as he dodged a few ponies, before reaching the bench she was sitting at, and coming to a halt.
He then placed his hoofs on the bench and got up, before unfurling his wing, and wrapping it around her, just as he used to do back in Canterlot when she was in need of comforting, or if they just wanted to cuddle a little. Counting the last one, it tended to be rather often, and they’d been asked if they were a couple at more than one occasion.
Star Twister looked back at him, smiling bleakly. “One of the traders tried to defraud me. and when I exposed it he tried to blame me,” she said with a sniffle
“That sounds like that stallion who used to sell cherries . Don’t worry about him,” Trueshot replied, smiling. A quick move with his wing brought her a little closer. He then unfurled his other wing, and used the tip of it to dry away her tears. “I got an idea! Let’s head over to Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner. If there’s anypony apart from me who can cheer you up, then it’s her!”
Turning to him to answer, Star Twister’s stomach decided it had other plans, and rumbled audibly.
“And she makes the most wonderful cupcakes in all of Equestria. And she recently started making milkshakes too,” Trueshot quickly added, smiling enthusiastically.
“Sounds wonderful, I love milkshakes.”
Out of nowhere a pink mare appeared, and addressed them with a squeaky voice. “I do too. And that means we got something in common. Oh I haven’t seen you here in town, and that must mean you really are new here, and that means…” the pink pony stopped and gasped for air, and then continued “… a welcoming party!”
Before she managed to dash off at sonic rainboom speed, Trueshot clamped his teeth around her tail, and dragged her back. He then whispered a few quick words into the pink pony’s ear, before letting her go again. Now instead of zipping away, she bounced down the street like a bouncy ball. All the while her grin was like that of a madpony’s and her giggling was not unsimilar to a little school-filly.
“Who... was that?” was all Star Twister managed to utter, unable to believe what just happened. The welcoming party she could understand, but an earth pony appearing out of thin air. No way that was possible. It was against the laws of physics!
Trueshot looked at her expression of confusion and pure shock, and put a hoof before his mouth to stifle a giggle. “Oh, that. That’s Pinkie Pie. She’s the local party pony, and a real master of cheering people up. If you ever feel down, just take a trip to Sugarcube Corner to meet her, and you’ll be as happy as ever.”
Trueshot leaned a little closer, and snickered while speaking, “don’t try to understand her. I asked her friends about the, um, random behavior, and that was the advice I got from them.”
He then jumped down from the bench, and smiled. “Let’s head over, and get your mood all fixed out. And I asked her to fix us some milkshakes before she left. They should be pretty much done by the time we arrive.”
By the time they arrived at Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie had as predicted prepared everything. The two ponies had barely gotten through the door before Pinkie Pie had grabbed them and practically dragged them to a table in the corner. It was a simple, round table with two chairs right across for each other, and in the middle a simple wax candle flickering idly. To top it all , the table was located in the far end of the room, and the closest light bulb were dead - upon closer inspection one would notice it was purposely loosened- , meaning the dominant source of light was the candle. Within a minute she had also appeared with one large strawberry milkshake, and two straws, one for each of them.
Pinkie placed the milkshake between them. “Have fun you two,” she said before rapidly bunching away with a giggle.
“Does she always do that?” Star Twister said with slightly red cheeks, looking across the milkshake at Trueshot.
Trueshot was looking equally red. Mostly because he found her absolutely irresistible when she blushed like that. “Not all the time. But she does like to run Amor’s errand whenever she can.” His face turned a slightly darker shade of red, before continuing. “And I believe she thinks we make a cute couple.”
They both bent forward in perfect unison to take a sip, resulting in their muzzles touching. They both recoiled rapidly, and turned slightly away from each, their cheeks burning with a fiery red only bested by the flickering of the flickering candle.
At some point the awkward silence had to end. And what better way to do that than to take a quick sip, at the same time. Again their muzzles met, but this time neither of them recoiled. Instead they just sat there looking into each other’s eyes.
“Star Twister?”
“Uh huh.”
“You remember that image I showed you a few months ago? That mountain and the cairn, we should take a trip up there tomorrow; Celebrate your birthday, just the two of us. Maybe watch the sunset.”
Trueshot blinked thrice, and let his gaze linger over her glass-like, brown eyes. Those magnificent pools of brown, reflecting all her love for him, all her care and all her passion. Staring deep into them, Trueshot found himself completely lost in their beauty.
“That sounds wonderful!”
“Huh? what? You really mean it?” Trueshot stammered as her voice brought him back to reality.
“Yes, I do. I would love to,” she replied with a faint chuckle.
Not having really thought about any details at all, Trueshot leaned back and rubbed his chin with his left forehoof. “Then it’s settled? I can fly us over. What about meeting, say four? Gives us plenty of time to get there before the sun sets. We could meet by the lake, and go from there.”
His straw was colored slightly pink as he took a long sip from the strawberry milkshake.
Star Twister giggled a little, and replied, “That sounds fantastic. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Her mind wandering through all the things they had experienced, she remembered when he had shown the image “Oh, do you remember when you showed me that image of the mountain? You asked me if i wanted to see an image of the area during the winter, and happened to have the image with you - almost like you had planned it all along.” She giggled lightheartedly again, and sighed contently. “I remember joking about this day back then, to finally live near each other. And now it’s happening.”
Trueshot smiled and nodded. Those days had indeed been fantastic, almost as good as it was now. Just the two of them talking about everything and having fun. All they could ever want.
The two of them sitting there, sipping milkshake and enjoying each other's company did go just as planned. Talking about how Star Twister had been doing in Canterlot, how Trueshot’s training for the army had been going, what to do in the next days, and just any topic they felt for.
After several hours, as the sun set, the two ponies finally found it best to get some sleep, despite the excitement for tomorrow, and Pinkie’s rather successful attempts to make them a couple would make it almost impossible.
The rapid clacking of hooves on gravel could be heard as Star Twister trotted with hasty steps toward the lake in ponyville, the spot they had agreed to meet on. She was a few minutes late, mostly thanks to being new in the town, and was a little worried he would be waiting. She had been super stoked since he had suggested the trip last day, and now she couldn’t wait to meet him, and didn’t want to screw it up by being late.
Instead of the normally goofy Trueshot, she was greeted with an empty shorebank. He was late too. At least she would have time for a closer look at the lake, and maybe even the surroundings.
Enjoying the view of the bright blue sky, she trotted around the lake - grass tickling her hooves. Each step in the wonderful weather just made her smile wider, and the warmth from the bright sun made it all seem like heaven. Heading down to the clear liquid she stared into her own reflection, the sun right behind her.
Standing there, she heard a faint splash and looked up. A few meters in front of her she spotted several large ripples in the water.
“Probably a bird,” she spoke out to herself as she gazed intensly into the water, trying to spot whatever had made the ripples.
“Strange,” she said and leaned closer, having spotted what she thought was a bird, “I haven’t seen large yellow birds without beaks before... and neither have I seen one with brown feathers on the head.” The thing seemed to draw closer, and made her able to identify it. “Wait a minute, that’s not a bird. That’s…” She stared closer, completely enthralled by the creature. It looked like it was swimming and flying at the same time.
As it looked directly at her, and changed course to directly upwards, it finally dawned to her. “Trueshot,” she yelled with a high pitched voice just as he broke the water surface. The water showered her and completely soaked her mane.
Trueshot landed next to her, and looked at her now flat mane. “Hello. What’s up? Someone soaked you?”
“For a starter, you just soaked me,” she said, glaring at him.
Trueshot shook his mane slightly, sending drops of water everywhere. Finally content with being not-so-wet, he turned to her with a silly grin going from ear to ear.
“Oh Trueshot, I simply can’t stay mad at you,” Star Twister replied as her glare slowly turned into a silly grin and eventually an evil smirk.
Then she gave him a firm bump with her flank, throwing him off balance, and at a direct course into the water.
Grinning wickedly, Star Twister let her eyes follow Trueshot as he seemingly lost his footing, and balance faster than a pegasus in a storm-cloud. Feeling a strong hoof wrap around her neck, her grin disappeared like dust in a storm. ‘Oh shit,’ was all she thought as they both headed at a straight course towards the cold water.
They both hit the water together like a massive cannonball, resulting in a huge splash. The torrent of liquid created a small rainbow over them as the sun rays hit it.
Both of them instantly clung onto the edge of the lake, and crawled up as fast as physically possible. Well up both of them turned their heads to confront each other, before collapsing into hysterical laughter.
“Trueshot,” she exclaimed between the waves of laughter, “you look completely ridiculous.”
“You’re not…” Trueshot burst into laughter again. “Better yourself.”
They both looked at themselves, fur dripping with water, and manes completely disheveled, before bursting into another giggling fit, and erupted in chorus, “we both do.” A good ten more minutes passed as they just lay there, next to each other, by the water’s line, just laughing of their heart’s desire.
Star Twister was the first of them to recover enough to speak. “Weren’t you supposed to show me something today?” She inquired, flourishing her eyebrows slightly.
“Oh right, that. Yes I am.” Trueshot got on his hooves, and smiled at her. He watched her still doing that thing with her eyebrows, and he loved it. “Somepony is trying to flirt with me?” He said in a completely innocent voice, and smiled at her.
Her reaction was instantaneous. Within seconds her cheeks, and the tips of her ears, went from their normal light blue to light red. And a cute smile appeared on her face. Upon seemingly discovering her own reaction, she quickly turned away from him, let out a faint “eep”, and hid her cheeks, now getting dangerously close to perfect crimson.
Trueshot too suffered from a severe case of macintosh cheeks, and for each second passed the burning seemed to intensify. “I don’t mind if you do. Now get on my back. You’re hiking with me today.” Trueshot then lowered his body, allowing her to climb onto his back.
“Me? You’re flying me there on your back?” Star looked at him, a light shade of red pulsing in her cheeks, and on the tip of her ears.
“Yes I am, silly. Now hop on, and hold tight; hoofs around my back, and hind legs around my waist. That way I can move my wings freely, and you won’t fall off.”
“Okay.” She carefully got on his back, and did as instructed. A faint giggle escaped her lips as her underside made contact with his back, the fur tickling her lightly.
Carefully moving forward, every tiniest movement caused his fur to seek out a ticklish spot with deadly precision. Yet she wanted it. His soft fur gently caressing and tickling her belly; purely divine. But it had to end at some point. Humming slightly in delight, she let her gentle hoofs wrap around his strong neck, and squeezing her hind legs into his flank.
Firmly in place on his back, she felt an abrupt, almost spasm like move run through his body, assaulting every single ticklish spot she had, and a few she didn’t know about. Gasping audibly, she craned her neck and felt every muscle in her body tense. Then she started giggling, a lot. And he did it again.
“Trueshot…” she uttered between the gasps for air, and the tickling fits. “Stop it. It tickles.”
Another sharp gasp escaped from her lips as trueshot flexed his back, sending her sliding slightly forward. It felt like every single hair in his fur found a spot to tickle her. Him only keeping up the wiggling made her squirm like a hyperactive filly, and by long her giggles were turned into sharp gasps for air. She wished him to stop, but on the same time wanted him to continue until she was reduced to a giggling heap of fur.
Stopping for a second to let her calm down, Trueshot turned his head and looked at her, grinning like an idiot. “Ready to fly?”
Not even bothering to wait for her reply, Trueshot flapped his wings, and lifted them a few meters off the ground. He instantly felt her tighten the grip around his neck slightly, and her hind legs squeezing his flanks. It was no surprise to him, as he knew this was her first flight, and they tended to start with just that; holding firmly around the one flying. With a few strong flaps they were off.
Star Twister squealed in delight as Trueshot accelerated, making her mane and tail flutter like pennants behind her. And as a natural reaction she tightened the grip around him.
Occupied with squealing and enjoying the wind whistling past her ears, she almost missed trueshot calling after her, “You enjoying the ride?”
She could barely hear him due to the noise from the wind, but did catch what he said. “Yes I dOOOOO,” she wailed as the Pegasus clasped his wings to the side of his body, sending them into a free fall.
She closed her eyes tightly, clasped around him with all her strength and howled intensely in both fear and euphoria on the same time. The wind rushing through the hair, the feeling of flying, being so close to Trueshot; it all was wonderful. And then there was the ground closing in at a rapid speed, which was not so wonderful; very scary in fact when it’s your first time riding on a Pegasus, and he decides to randomly stop using his wings.
Just as abruptly as he had let them fall, Trueshot folded out his wings, and flew straight. Finally sensing straight flight she opened her eyes, revealing a grinning Trueshot looking at her.
“How did you like falling freely?” was all he asked about.
“I loved it,” she exclaimed with glee, only causing him to playfully drop a few more meters. And it made her howl in delight again.
After a few minutes, Trueshot started slowing down, and descending towards the top of a mountain containing a large cairn. As they drew closer, the contours of the terrain revealed themselves. The moss on the rock, the scattered junipers and the glacial striations on the stone all became clear to them. Even the tiny juniper berries were visible when they got close enough.
“Remember this from the panoramic image I showed you? The area around was all covered in snow.” Closing the last gap, he prepared himself to land, and touched down gently. “Now you are to see it in the summer. And as promised we get to see the sun set.” As on reflex, Trueshot turned towards the sun. “Talking about sunset, I believe it’s on its way down. Just sit down, and make yourself comfortable,” he replied with a clever smile and a glint in his eyes, before disappearing behind the cairn.
Star Twister inspected the cairn Trueshot had disappeared behind, it stood on top of a large moss covered rock. Standing on it gave them vision over everything nearby, at the edge of the green hills she saw Canterlot castle lodged into a huge mountainside, on the other side she saw the inkling lights of Las-Pegasus buzzling to life as the night drew closer. Between the two cities one could also see the backs of Macintosh hills, sitting under the raving Crystal mountains. In the skies over them one could see clouds spewing out from the weather factory in Cloudsdale. And at the edge of Everfree forest they could see Ponyville, from this spot it looked like nothing more than a small settlement.
A gust swept over the top, tufting her hair to the side while she stood in awe as her eyes wandered over the beautiful environment. The sides of the huge rock he had taken her rolled downwards, creating an illusion of a constant moving hillside. Further down she spotted a lake secluded within a small forest, glittering with a brilliant luster as the rays shone down upon it.
Behind her she heard clacks coming from hoofs hitting stone, without removing her eyes from the view she noticed the yellow pegasus walking up next to her with a basket held in his mouth. He placed the basket down in front of them and turned to her with a smile drawn upon his lips.
“Food,” Trueshot said, not waiting for her to gain composure. “Cupcakes, muffins, pies and even milkshake. I asked Pinkie to prepare it, and to have one of her friends fly it up here.”
She turned to face him and nodded in a speechless response.
Trueshot took a step to the side, moving closer to her. He then gently craned his neck and gave her a swift peck on her left cheek. “What are you looking at, sweetie?”
She sat down and gazed at him, “Something amazing...” She quickly retorted.
Another gust swept over the top, nipping cooly in her fur, sending a shiver down her body. Not more than a second after she felt a warm wing embrace her, tucking around her like a warm blanket, sending a wave of heat to her cheeks.
“You’re cold. Here, lets see if this might help warm you up,” he replied softly, giving her a quick peck on her cheek. He then gently pulled her closer to his warm body. “Better?”
The shivering stopped and the clattering teeth was replaced by a gentle smile. Sitting in his warm embrace made her think about everything around them. He was always kind and nice to her, even on her darkest days he could make her smile. He was never hard to ask when it came to physical work, and even then, she could always come to him when she needed a shoulder to cry on. The thoughts of them made her cheeks flush in heat and painted her in a tint of red.
“Thanks, it does feel wonderful,” she said with a smile, snuggling a little extra into the warmth of the Pegasus beside her.
Releasing a sigh of pleasure, she rested her head into his strong neck. “It’s wonderful up here. I just wish it could last forever.” She took a deep breath and watched the sun fall down behind the snow covered mountaintops in the far.
“What matters is what we got now; each other,” he said, letting his head rest gently on top of hers, “And that will last as long as we want to.”
The two ponies sat still in each other’s embrace, nibbling on the food prepared for them in the basket. The sun finally disappeared completely behind the mountains; the last rays kissing the couple gently over their body with a last breath of heat. As the night grew darker the soothing light of the moon emerged in splendor, glittering in the gentle waves of the small lake below them. Nothing needed to be said between them, the comfortable silence said more than any words could.
No sound was made as Trueshot landed gently in front of the library, the grass was cool and clung onto his hoofs because of the moisture of the night. The town itself had turned in for the night, nothing could be heard except the sharp sound of crickets. He felt the weight on his back lift as Star Twister elegantly slipped off his back.
He turned at her, "Are you able to stay awake for another few hours?” He asked in a hushed tone.
"Yes, I believe I am. But why are we landing in front of the library?" She replied, looking at him with a curious expression.
"Just wait and see," he retorted with a playful smile.
He made way next to her and placed a wing carefully over her back, gently pulling her closer to his side while they moved forward to the red door.
The door creaked loudly as they entered the library, the room was draped in a complete blackness, not even the contours of any furniture could be seen. With a loud cheer the library was lit, showing most of the Ponyville’s residents hiding inside.
With Pinkie Pie leading them on, they cheered together. “Happy birthday, and welcome to Ponyville.”
Star Twister’s jaw dropped open, “You are responsible for all this?” She uttered after seconds of silence.
Seeing her reaction brought a smile to Trueshot’s face. “Yeah, I am,” he replied with a stifled laugh.
Before he could say more, he was embraced warmly by a set of hoofs. Her lips pressed onto his, locking them in a deep kiss.
He whispered, “And I don’t regret it one bit.” Before he returned her kiss.
